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Game: Ori and the Blind Forest Definitive Edition Platform: PC Time: 9 hours
The feels, man, the feels. This platformer/metroidvania hybrid might have been light on story, but what little there was was heart gripping, and it knew how to make me feel sad.
Now, despite the art style, this game was HARD. Not Dark Souls hard; this game was trial and error hard with so many traps that you can only avoid if you've died to them already (or have the world's quickest reaction time). I expected its save anywhere mechanic to make the game easier, and it did, but only in the sense that the game would have been next to impossible without that mechanic. Speaking of impossible, one of its achievements is a perfect run without dying once. I shudder to think how many gamers try that and give up after dying to one of those unfair chase sequences.
Now, even though I found the game unfair at times, it is by no means a bad game. The controls are fluid, and when you get most of the abilities you almost feel lik you can fly through the air. Enemies are as much an obstacle in this game as moving platforms and at times are needed to traverse the levels, which is a sign of good design. Oh, and the game didn't crash on me once, which is something I cannot say for Batman: Arkham Knight.
Overall, I liked the Ori and the Blind Forest. Not the best game I've played, but far from the worst.
8/10

Game: Korgan Platform: Xbox One Time: 1 1/2 hours
This game is basically baby's first dungeon crawler. It is bare bones to the nth degree. It's a good idea for gamers to play this game to decide if they ever want to get into the genre, but that's it.
The game is, well, it's simple as simple can be. The story is nonexistant. Just go pick up some gears. Why? Because a checklist told you to. Then cure some villagers who just appeared because another checklist said so. As for the characters, well at least you get to play as all three at once and switch between themat will, but there is just no depth to any of it. You get a weak attack, a strong attack, a few potions, and one special skill. That's it. As for the character personalities, I'm pretty sure I've seen wigs with more personality than these three soggy peices of cardboard.
Now, I only played the prologue because it was free and I was curious, but it offers a "Chapter 1" for $20, which is way too much for what I saw. I'll stick with what I got, and that was an easy, free, unmemorable palate cleanser. At least it didn't overstay its welcome.
4/10.

Game: Shadow Warrior 2 Platform: PC Time: No idea (GOG didn't keep track for some reason)
So, this game...this game. It gave me mixed feelings. It was by no means bad, but it wasn't great. It was just good, which is a shame since I thought the prequel was great.
Shadow Warrior 2 was a "one step forward, two steps back" sort of game. Every improvement it made, it sacrified stuff and ended up worse off than when it began. Take for example the level design. Procedurally generated with tilesets and modular pieces that can be thrown together to create unique maps. Good in theory, but then you kinda realize that you are going to go through the same levels over and over again just with different layouts. You might not see the mansion next to the underground caverns every time, but you will eventually see them. Compare this to the original Shadow Warrior and you will miss the handmade levels.
The weapons and enemies don't fare any better. There's far more than in the original game, but then you realize that they're all reskins of eachother. The robot scorpions are just the same enemies as the demon scorpions, and the laser pistol is functionally no different than the revolver. Sure, some enemies had different weaknesses and weapons different skills, but eventually you're not going to see any differences because they're all basically the same. Sure, it made the occasional enemy that wasn't a reskin more pleasing, but even then I couldn't help but notice that they were just variations on "an enemy that summons more enemies."
Oh, and I have to talk about the bosses. They were just nothing more than bullet sponges that occasionally summoned enemies and had a few unique attacks. That's it. Compared to Shadow Warrior where each boss was a unique challenge that didn't have to call in allies because they were so dang tough. They each had glowing weak points, but hitting them while dodging attacks was enough of a challenge.
The new skills and weapon upgrades didn't really do anything. They let you specialize and change up your playstyle, but I didn't see much point to it. I much preferred the previous Shadow Warrior which was elegant in its simplicity. A few skills, weapon upgrades that physically changed the appearances of the weapons (god I missed that); it was tight and perfect. And then there was the story. Neither game had much of a story, but Shadow Warrior had an arc. Shadow Warrior 2...I dunno. Stuff happened, plots were twisted, so on and so forth. It just didn't wow me.
But, through it all, the game still entertainmed me. The gunplay was fast and frantic and overall enjoyable. It is not quite middie of the road, but it's not exactly on the same level as its predecessor.
6/10

Game: Batman Arkham Knight Platform: PC Time: 53 hours
Oh dear god am I ever glad I waited to play this game. I am so happy I didn't have to live through the horror stories that were the PC version of the game on release because the game was just above average, and I would have hated for major glitches to turn it into a genuinely bad game.
So yea, it was above average. The combat was the same we've gotten for all the other Arkham games, but that's not a bad thing because it's not broken or anything. It was fun to explore Gotham both via gliding and the batmobile, although I did notice a drop in framerates when piloting that car...tank...thing.
The story was ok. It was good to see The Joker again after he died (spoilers) as nothing more than an hallucination brought on by The Scarecrow's fear toxin. Great way to show what Batman fears most without resorting to any old cliches. But the titular Arkham Knight...what a letdown. I would rather it have been The Joker's reanimated corpse than who it turned out to be. At least that would have made for a good plot twist. Speaking of plot twists, The Riddler has transformed into an actual genius into an arrogant jerk who thinks his puzzles that litrally can't be solved without Batman's specific toolset are the most fiendish ever devised. Oh, and there isn't really a final boss. Or much of any bosses, really.
Now, since I got the season pass for the game (long after all the DLC had been released), I played through all the extra side missions, both the ones that were implemented into the main game and the standalone missions. The only good one was the Batgirl mission; it clearly received the most attention, and I would have loved to play it for longer. But this sadly leaves the Catwoman and Red Hood missions at the bottom of the barrel. Red Hood was just a boring set of random rooms where you silently kill (a first for the Batman: Arkham series) or beat up goons without any extra tools. At least they all got one or two unique gadgets, but Red Hood just has his guns. And the Catwoman mission was good for 90% of the time, but then it got to the final gauntlet, which was several layers of bullshit. Overwhelming numbers of enemies plus roving lasers multiplied by a floor that slowly becomes electrified until it's almost completely covered in panels that drain your health equals a very bad and annoying time.
Overall, I recommend Arkham Knight but only for completionists. Even though it was above average, it was still the worst of the Arkham games. Also, I do not recommend the DLC. If you play the game, just play the base game and that's all you'll need.
6/10

Title: Duke Nukem Forever Platform: PC Time: 8 hours
I went in thinking that the rumors weren't true, that this game was better than the Internet would make us believe. I was wrong. Oh was I ever wrong.
Let's start with the positives: it doesn't want me to gouge my eyes out with a rusty spoon. I can only say that because the game didn't crash on me. And because the long load times and texture pop-in Joe complained about in his review were absent, either because I played on a PC that is far more powerful than anything available at the time or because the devs actually improved those issues. Sure the textures weren't good, but I play a mix of old and new games, so low-res textures aren't something that bothers me. Usually
As for the bad, where to even begin? It just wasn't a Duke Nukem game. Recharting health? Not Duke. Nothing but hitscanning enemies? Duke Nukem is supposed to use projectile-based enemies you can easily dodge if you keep moving. QTEs? What is this, Duke Nukem or Call of Duty?
The jokes were not funny; there weren't enough weapons or enemies by half (in the concept art section I saw a drawing for a fat, three-breasted woman that was supposed to be some fleshy shell controlled by an alien brain, which is an awesome concept that deserved to be in the game but was cut for some reason); the level layout was confusing at times, and the puzzles...wait, did I say there were puzzles? In a Duke Nukem game? Blasphemy, I say! Blasphemy and slander!
Oh, and I have to mention the controls: they worked except for those times the physics engine took over and made them not work. Driving sections were janky, I got stuck on the terrain several times, and then there was this one particular level that almost made me want to quit it was so full of BS. The game was full of difficulty spikes that were hair-pullingly annoying for maybe five minutes, but they were so difficult those five minutes easily became half an hour because of all the cheap deaths.
Duke Nukem Forever might have baited a sequel, but I'm torn about getting one. I don't want another Duke Nukem game like this, but I also don't want this travesty to be the last Duke Nukem game we got. Duke's the kind of guy who should go out with an explosive bang, not this whimpering fart.
4/10

Game: DmC Devil May Cry Platform: PC Time: 8 hours
I can both understand and not understand the hate. The characters are atrocious and unlikable. The combat is fun and mostly fluid. The writing is juvenile; I'm pretty sure I could do a better job (in fact I'm confident that I have done a better job in the past). The story is a cool supernatural take on They Live, which is a cool story in and of itself. And so on.
I found DmC Devil May Cry be kinda easy, but I don't know if that's because it's an easy game or because I'm used to its combat. And I had a love-hate relationship with the environment design. Usually I found the levels ugly with their jagged obsidian stones jutting out at odd angles and bursting through walls and floors, but when the levels twisted into dark reflections without those stones, they were downright beautiful. And I just loved seeing the words superimposed and tortured souls being, well, tortured. Normally I don't stop and stare at a game's levels, but I found myself doing just that on more than one occasion.
Had there been some tweaks to DmC's difficulty and complete rewrites of the characters, it would have been an amazing game. Maybe they could have gotten away with Dante's rude attitude if they slowly gave him the over the top ham sandwich demon kicker personality we all know and love. They had the building blocks but arranged them so haphazardly a few fell down before the game was finished. Oh well, at least we have DMC 5 to look forward to.
7/10

Game: Game of Thrones: A Telltale Game Series Platform: PC Time: 11 hours
I think I might be starting to lose my love of Telltale Games. I'm noticing an illusion of choice, and it was fairly obvious in this game. Not puzzles, just walk, interact, select answers in a timely manner, repeat. It was fairly obvious with this game, which didn't have much outside of the Game of Thrones label. The new characters weren't up to the standards of Game of Thrones, and everything they participated in was basically throwaway. Everything basically works, but it just doesn't do anything to stand out.
The game ended on a cliffhanger, which I don't think and hope is never resolved. 5/10

Title: A King's Tale: Final Fantasy XV Platform: Xbox One Time: 1 Hour
Short and sweet. It starts slow but picks up after you gain magic and allies. It doesn't overstay its welcome and only has one boss, and as a longtime Final Fantasy fan I got a good laugh out of who that boss was. More than worth the price of admission, which is free. 7/10

Game: Resident Evil Revelations Platform: Xbox One Time: 7 hours
Yeesh, what a mediocre game. It wasn't scary, it wasn't nail-biting, it was just middle of the road. It was servicable as a game, but I just kept thinking to myself, "Why should I care about these characters?" The dialogue didn't help. It wasn't the campy, "You were almost a Jill sandwich." kind of dialogue from the first game. It was wooden and awkward.
I like the enemy design, but the game just didn't feel like it was Resident Evil. I didn't have to manage inventory or anything, and the puzzles were laughable. Oh, and the bosses. They were either too easy or too frustrating, never anything in the middle. Especially the last boss; talk about an artificial difficulty spike. Maybe if the dodge mechanic worked as intended, but I never got it to work. Every time I dodged an attack, it wasn't due to skill but luck.
Such a let down. People complain about Resident Evil 6? Seriously? Compared to Resident Evil Revelations, that game's a masterpiece. 5/10

Game: Deadlight: Director's Cut Platform: PC Time: 3 hours
At first, I thought the game was ok. A 2D platformer set in an alternate reality zombie apocalypse? Sounds neat. But then the problems started to show. Janky controls, obstacles that you don't see coming, glitches, poorly designed levels, and so on. And the story. The boring, cliched, predictable story.
Deadlight never crashed on me once, but that doesn't change the fact that it's just not a good game. A 4/10 if I've ever seen one.

Title: Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition Platform: PC Time: 33 hours
When I played the demo, I didn't like it. When I played the full game, I gave it a second chance and it grew on me.
I found the gameplay to be a mixed bag. The driving was ok; the shooting was weird, and the combat was a good copy of Batman Arkham. As for the story, it didn't really get me invested; it was good, just not gripping. The characters weren't as fleshed out as I wanted, and while I didn't exactly see the plot twists coming, it was more to do with them coming out of nowhere. They didn't leave any impact. Honestly, the most fun I had with the game was with the cheesy fighting tournament and zombie dlc. Those are the kinds of kung fu movies I grew up on, so those missions resonated with me the most.
i would give this a solid 7/10

Game: Outland Platform: PC Time: 5.5 hours
I went into this game expecting a metroidvania game, found it to be a slightly more linear platformer/bullet hell hybrid game, with all the difficulty and B.S. that comes with the genre. Some areas I only managed to get through them by sheer dumb luck. Most of the game is fantastically designed and eases you in to the kinds of skills and abilities you will need and then ramps up the difficulty, but then there are the last two bosses who throw everything at you without any warning and expect you to get the timing down for stuff you've never practiced for.
While I will commend this game's art design, the story fall flat. The game mostly focuses on the challenge of the platforming and bosses and gives a servicable story, but then it pulls a twist at the end that basically says, "Even though the protagonist fought bravely and died countless times to get here, turns out the villains weren't going to do the evil stuff we originally thought they were, so the hero did this all for nothing." It's completely at odds with the rest of the story.
Outland is a game that will make you rage, but it's the kind of game that makes you satisfied when you've over come the cause ofthe rage. Play it for the challenge and tune out the story, but avoid Outland if you have a short temper.

Game: Creavures Platform: PC Time: 2 hours
This game was below average. The platforming was not too responsibe, the music was annoying, the level design was pedetstrian, etc.
The only thing I can say is good about the game is that I digged the bioluminescent designs of the main characters. If only some enemies didn't look out of place with their realistic designs.

Game: Bayonetta 2 Platform: Wii U Time: No idea
Fantastic game. Well, almost. I found it easier than the original Bayonetta. I don't know if that's because I played the first game a while back and knew most if not all of the game mechanics or because it's an easier game. But it was still fun, and mercifully short on the easily-failable QTE and platforming sequences (seriously, I died so many times on those in the original)
Story and characters were as great as always, and I love how even though the first game was supposed to be a standalone story, Bayonetta 2 skillfully weaved itself into the first game and explained a lot of character motivations, even though it essentially flipped the space-time continuum over and gave it a spanking.
Still, great game. Can't wait to see what we get for Bayonetta 3.